It wasn’t quite the Joey Moss Cup, but Wednesday morning’s full scrimmage was as close as to it as Edmonton Oilers fans will get in this condensed preseason. The last day of public sessions was pleasingly close to real hockey, with two (fairly) distinct teams lining up five on five for the most part, largely following the structure of an NHL game. There were guys in stripes calling penalties, offsides, and icings, there were faceoffs, changes on the fly, and occasional stoppages meant to simulate TV timeouts.

Unsurprisingly, a good crowd of about 5000 Oilers faithful turned out for the free show, packing out the available portions of the lower bowl and sprinkling into the upper. Not much doubt of the appetite for NHL hockey that has been building during these long months.

The scoreboard wasn’t running, but my internal clock had them as playing something less than a full 60 minutes but at least in the 45-50 minute range of puck-in-play time, followed by an extended shootout. There was one intermission and the afore-mentioned faux timeouts, otherwise the boys stuck to hockey in a hard-skating affair that featured plenty of body contact and at least one jolting check.

They weren’t keeping score, either, but by my count seven goals were scored. By my method of counting, it was the most improbable of upsets, as the “final score” was Team Light Blue 3, Team White 2, Team Dark Blue 2.

The teams were organized with what already seems classic Krueger logic: Lines 1 & 3 teamed up with D pairings 2 & 4; Lines 2 & 4 teamed up with D pairings 1 & 3. A 5th defenceman for each team. The 5th line, on the other hand, were effectively double agents. They stayed as a trio and simply switched back and forth between the two teams to give the forwards a breather every second cycle. Made perfect sense … but who would have guessed the grinders would fill the net?

Darcy Hordichuk was the star of the show, scoring twice, drawing a penalty, and throwing the biggest hit when he crunched Sam Gagner at the blueline, knocking the younger man’s helmet askew with a jolt. I could have lived without that, and so could Gagner by the looks of him, appearing winded as he slowly made his way back to the bench. But he hung in and appeared none the worse for wear thereafter.

There were a few other collisions, notably one between big Theo Peckham and just-as-big Mark Fistric that both guys saw coming and neither avoided. Peckham was taking his first turn after missing the first two days with a hip flexor, while the newly-acquired Fistric is applying for the same job.

Hordichuk’s linemate Chris VandeVelde also struck for a goal on a fine spin-around play, while Ales Hemsky, Gagner, Shawn Horcoff, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also found twine.

A few other vignettes:

● Nail Yakupov looks like he’ll be a monster on zone entries. The speed and skill with which he attacks the blueline forces defenders to cede the zone as they backpedal for position. Yakupov is quite comfortable to then pull up and look for the pass rather than always trying to force the issue.

● Yakupov boomed a one-timer just wide that had the crowd murmuring, and had a real nice dangle out of the left corner that ended with the rookie testing Nikolai Khabibulin with a high backhand shot. The flashy youngster also set up Gagner for a nice goal which the playmaker celebrated with considerably more gusto than the goal-scorer. Crowd-pleaser in the home barn, but I’m curious to see how that might go down in other rinks, or in front of other teams in this one for that matter. Yakupov had a couple of nice combinations with Hemsky, but at other times he looked a little lost, especially when the other guys had the puck.

● Hemsky was really dangling a time or three, and is generally displaying his best form since two surgeries ago. Ales scored a beautiful goal where he stickhandled out of the corner, sold pass all the way, and slipped a backhand past Devan Dubnyk. On at least two occasions he tried the airmail pass to Yakupov, a play that is going to cause trouble for Oilers opponents unless I miss my guess.

● Jordan Eberle’s understanding of the lanes in the offensive zone is beautiful to behold. Eberle is a master at leaving himself just enough room to double back along the boards, and subtle skill to hold the puck that extra half-step to make the defenceman commit before dropping it into the vacated lane for a teammate to do some damage with it.

● Taylor Hall may have had the best individual play of the afternoon when he stormed into the zone, convinced all five defenders and all 5000 fans he was going to take the puck to the net, only to pull up at the last moment for a gorgeous cross-ice feed to Horcoff, who roofed an excellent shot past Dubnyk.

● The fourth line of crafty Eric Belanger between bangers Ben Eager and Lennart Petrell has the potential to be a decent low-event trio. Belanger puts the puck in good places, and neither of his big, fast wingers is a whole lot of fun to play against. Belanger and Petrell are apt to be paired on the PK, perhaps even as the first unit.

● On the blueline Justin Schultz looked more engaged jumping into the play, but the NHL defenders on the other side of the puck eliminated a couple of his most promising-looking thrusts with strong defensive play. Schultz does have an excellent “first pass” which will serve him well for the foreseeable future, which is a bright one.

● For all the dangling and one-touch passing that the skill lines were doing, I was impressed with the stalwart play of experienced defenders like Ladi Smid and Nick Schultz. Smid went down to block a slapshot at one point, and on another occasion made a beautiful defensive stop on the old backdoor play that early in his career used to be his nemesis. Schultz stood out for his excellent positioning and sound one-on-one play, routinely cutting plays out before they amounted to anything.

● Ryan Whitney looked very solid, controlling the puck behind his own blueline, lugging it to safe areas and firing sharp passes to breaking forwards in the neutral zone.

●Colten Teubert had a solid day’s work. It’s a bit of a tightrope for guys like him, Peckham and Fistric, who thrive on robust play but can’t go overboard. Teubert in particular found a nice balance there.

● Between the pipes Nikolai Khabibulin looked sharp, beaten only by Hordichuk’s rebound off the end boards and Gagner’s nifty deke. Devan Dubnyk allowed maybe one questionable goal, but was at his best in the shootout when he slammed the door on RNH (twice), Hall, J.Schultz, and Eberle. In a dozen attempts he was beaten just once, by Teubert of all people on a nifty deke that one supposes he saves for just such an occasion. (Hey, you never know when a shootout might go 15 rounds, ask Jason Strudwick!)

* * *

The public sessions are now done, as the Oilers will return to their usual closed practices leading up to the season opener in Vancouver on Sunday.

The Edmonton Oilers and their fans acknowledge each other at the end of Wednesday’s quasi-intrasquad game.

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